Wretchard quoted:
“The IRGC is normally called the “Revolutionary Guards” in the media. It is a state within a state. The IRG is separate from, and parallel to, the other arm of the Iran’s military, which is called Artesh (another Persian word for army).”
Wretchard also said:
“Michael Rubin at NRO warned against the danger of seeing events in Iran through the prism of Western Democratic politics.”
It’s certainly a mistake to see the Iranian theocracy through the prism of western democracy. Obama is obviously being stupid in doing so (we at Belmont Club all know this).
However it is highly appropriate to see the Iranian theocracy through the prism of western totalitarism, e.g. Nazism. The historical parallels between Ahmadinejad’s IRGC and Hitler’s (or rather Heinrich Himmler’s) SS are very striking. The SS was also a “state within a state” and represented a separate branch of the German military that was directly loyal to the Nazi Party. Hitler and his crew originally used the SS as their own private army as a counter to Ernst Roehm’s SA (Sturm Abteilung). The SA was naturally Ernst Roehm’s own private army. During the “Night of the Long Knives”, the SA and SS slugged it out with the SS becoming victorious thus propelling Hitler into undisputed power. There has been some indications that the IRGC is loyal directly to Ahmadinejad and NOT to the mullahs. In some ways this recent Iranian election can be seen as a historical parallel to the Nazi party’s election to the Reichstag on 31 July 1932.
RWA said:
“The only “engagement” that will fix the Iran problem is M1A1’s and A-10’s against T-72’s in downtown Tehran.”
This is obviously true. Tyrants like Ahmadinejad only respect naked power and despise weakness such as shown by Obama. Obama like Neville Chamberlain is precisely the wrong politician to be facing a tyrant like Ahmadinejad (again, we all know this).
A world wide depression, coinciding with the rise of savage dictators confronting feckless democracies…
They say that history does not repeat itself but instead it rhymes (about time for someone to post a poem).
